Rescue Stories
An Extreme Rescue - Lorraine's Story
On Tuesday August 9, 2005 CARES received a phone call from the Calgary SPCA, needing to verify ownership of a cat in their care that had a tattoo in her ear. The SPCA had first called the CARES vet, who gave them CARES' phone number. The SPCA employee informed Lauralee Porter of CARES that the cat, Lorraine, had been surrendered to them a few days prior by her owner who was moving back to England.
Lauralee confirmed that Lorraine had indeed been a CARES cat that was adopted by an English family in March 2004. When Lauralee inquired what would become of Lorraine, the SPCA employee sadly informed her that Lorraine would be euthanized in two days, as she was not doing well, had been lashing out angrily, and they did not have the space due to receiving over 60 cats per day! Lauralee remembered that indeed Lorraine never faired well in a cage, but was a wonderful lively and friendly gal who used to love to play fetch. There must be a way.......
Lauralee works for a sand/gravel company in Burnaby called Target Products. As it so happens, Target has a plant in Calgary. Lauralee hung up the phone from the SPCA and dialed Target Calgary. Would it be possible, she asked the office gals, if someone there could go to the SPCA, "adopt" Lorraine and give her a room to stay in until she could figure out how to transport Lorraine back to Langley? Yes, came back the reply….. but…..something even better happened…….
In walks the owner's son, Chad Mowat, who incidently oversees the Calgary plant and sometimes travels there on business. Lauralee called Chad over and inquired if he was going to Calgary in the near future. As it so happened, he and his father were going there on business the next day! Well, that was the answer she needed… Lauralee asked Chad if he would be able to bring her "something" back from Calgary……..and bless his soul, after learning that it was a cat from the Calgary SPCA, he said yes. (Incidently, both Chad and his father, Dallas, are allergic to cats!)
| CARES volunteer Lisa MacDonald assisted Lauralee by making calls to the airlines to get information regarding transporting a cat. The cat could be carried on, or put in the cargo hold. It was decided the cat would be carried on, and Lisa delivered a canvas travel carrier to Dallas' residence. Lauralee called back the SPCA to inform them to put a hold on Lorraine…help was coming! |  Lorraine's plane lands. |
| Dallas and Chad arrived at the SPCA just one hour before they closed on Wednesday August 10th. After giving the information and the carrier to the employee, they waited for someone to retrieve her… Soon the employee returned to ask another employee for help - and to bring the gloves! A while later, the employees returned with Lorraine in a hard plastic cat carrier. They were not able to get her into the other one due to Lorraine putting up a fight (that's our gal!). The hard carrier was donated to CARES by the SPCA, and no fee was charged for her release! |  The last one off the plane. |
| Off to the airport next, and unfortunately, due to the change in carriers, Lorraine was demoted from first class to cargo class. But she didn't complain, and was very calm on both her arrival to the Abbotsford airport, and in the car for the ride back to the shelter. |  Dallas and Chad collect their precious cargo! |
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Once back at the shelter, Lorraine excitedly checked out her new living quarters. A nice cozy basket bed awaited her, plus some nice food, a scratchy post with perch - all in her own spacious run! Lauralee sat with Lorraine as she went back and forth between food, bed and scratchy post, all the while stopping to give Lauralee a bump or rub of appreciation. This was one grateful cat! |
Post rescue:
CARES has sent a letter of thanks to the Calgary SPCA staff for their patience
and assistance in helping Lorraine return to CARES, and Loraine herself
has sent them a nice bouquet of flowers!
In her coat of many colors... she thinks she is invisible.
A few days after her rescue, Lorraine was taken to the Langley Cat Show…
On Sunday August 14th, a nice family from
White Rock spotted Lorraine and her special story, and "just had
to have her"! They have since reported back that she is doing great
- they just love her - and she will stay with them forever!
Lucky To Be Alive
Lucky's Story
“The first time I saw Lucky, I couldn’t
believe she was actually alive”. These words were spoken by C.A.R.E.S.
volunteer Lisa MacDonald as she recited the story to me of how she responded
to a call in Aldergrove from the lady who rescued Lucky.
To fully tell Lucky’s story, we need to wind the clock back to October
2005 when Lisa spotted an ad in the paper “Free kittens to good
homes”. Lisa called the number in hopes of educating the people
to at least charge a little something for the kitties. (People who are
willing to pay something are more likely to be good, responsible homes.)
The conversation led to C.A.R.E.S. actually taking the kittens. When Lisa
went to pick up the wee ones, it was then discovered that this property
was literally overrun with stray cats that the well meaning people were
feeding. Lisa was told that it all began with one abandoned and unspayed
cat (finally caught – but pregnant again – in February 2007!).
Thus began the relationship where over a two year period, Lisa assisted
the folks in trapping and rescuing over forty cats and their kittens.
Sadly many other ones weren’t so fortunate and would be found killed
by raccoons or coyotes.
It was on one of her trips to the farm in October 2006 (to pick up yet
more kittens) that Lisa was told of a tabby spotted on the property that
appeared to be injured. Lisa informed the lady that if she was able to
catch the cat, to call her and she would come right away. Well the call
came one Sunday evening. The lady actually had the cat in the house and
she was pretty badly injured. The lady had managed to get Lucky into a
carrying case but she needed vet care right away. Lisa raced over to pick
up the cat. When Lisa looked into the carrier, what she saw and smelled
made her stomach turn. Lucky had a huge gash in her side and she almost
looked like she had been skinned! There were also smaller wounds on her
head. Gangrene had also set in.
It has been a long recovery process for Lucky.
Four surgeries, daily cleaning of the wound, wearing cones on her head
and several courses of antibiotics later she is finally nearing complete
recovery. The C.A.R.E.S. volunteers have been working with her to get
her more socialized so that one day she can be adopted to a loving home.
She has become very lively and playful and she will happily roll around
and play with her toys! Lucky also loves to hang out on her scratchy post
and watch the daily goings-on at the shelter. She is curious of the other
cats and, happily, she is now sharing quarters with three new feline friends!
Submitted by: Lauralee Porter – Intakes/Adoptions Coordinator -
February 2007
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